The Aquabats and The Bane of Dreams
by eyeshineFeline
Summary: The Aquabats confront a supernatural queen of nightmares who kidnaps children in their dreams. However, what will happen when they are met with a new female member by the name of Tea Time Calico?
1. Prologue

She's coming closer and closer. And the little girl runs as fast as her little feet can carry her. She's out of breath. She's scared. But no matter how fast she runs, _She's_ coming. The Dark Queen that has threatened her to take her away forever to Her eternal land of nightmares. If this repetitive dream was only the beginning, what real horrors of the night was the little girl yet to face?

Then suddenly, she tripped and fell to the ground. Letting out a weakened whimper, she clutched her scraped knee and attempted to stand. With no luck, she fell once again. She heard the Queen's cackling laughter from behind, approaching in haste, and she began to drag herself across the ground. Frightened tears now streamed from her eyes and she crawled herself further like her life depended on it.

"Foolish girl!" the Queen's voice echoed above her. "You think you can escape from the likes of me?" The little girl looked up just in time to see the Queen's wretched claw swing down towards her, trapping her in a surreal cage of her long, bony fingers. Soul-ripping screams exploded from the girl's mouth, shattering her lungs in the overwhelming wave of her destined demise.

And with the snap of the Queen's fingers, the girl disappeared into Her land of night terrors and the body of the girl left in the waking world vanished like a cloud of smoke.

Who would serve as defenders of the sleeping children against this wicked Bane of Dreams?

Who would gallop through unchartered dimensions of the supernatural to save the tortured children?

Who would stand in the face of evil in the name of mankind?

No one better than The Aquabats to make new friends, outsmart a daemon, and save the world with their super rad awesome forces of rock n' roll.


	2. Chapter 1 - The Girl

Somewhere… In a cheap motel in the middle of nowhere…

Crash stood in the middle of the hallway, perplexed by the glowing vending machine in front of him. A multitude of choices resided inside, luring him into the realm of salt and sugar. The Skittles cajoled him, the chips catcalled, and, worse of all, the powdered donuts cried loudly for his attention. Yes, that's what he would have – the donuts. Nothing beats a midnight snack better than the scrumptious delicacy of powdered donuts.

With an excited grin on his face, he took the dollar Eaglebones gave him and fed it through the money slot. Oh, he could just taste those mini donuts now! He urgently pushed the 'F5' button and the package of sweets came rolling towards him slowly. He could barely handle the anticipation as they came closer to the edge…

_KA-CHINK!_

The vending machine made a disgruntled noise and the package of donuts hung on the snack dispenser.

"Huh?" exclaimed Crash aloud. He jammed his finger on 'F5' repeatedly. Nothing. "That's not fair!" he cried out, beginning to bang his fists on the glass. "Come on, you stupid thing!" _BANG! BANG! BANG!_ Still, the donuts hung there, tantalizing the helpless Aquabat. "GIVE ME MY DONUTS!" he yelled angrily. That was it, for the furious superhero began to grow to a momentous size. His shaking roars shook the motel intensely; debris collapsed to the ground from the force. With his colossal hand, he grabbed the vending machine, snapping it in two. The package of donuts flew out into the air. He caught it with his other hand and cheered as he shrunk back to his original size. Before leaving back to the motel room, he turned to see a cleaning woman in awe. Her eyes were wide in absolute shock. Crash, laughing nervously, started back.

"Uh, sorry," he stammered, before running down the hall.

The cleaning woman sighed, "Not again…"

The door slammed close and the four Aquabats turned to see their remaining team member breathing heavily.

"Crash, are you okay?" Jimmy the Robot asked.

"Yes, maybe, no," Crash murmured in panic. He hurried to the bedside and sat down, tossing the last powdered donut in his mouth.

"Hey, did you get my Slushi in a Can?" Eaglebones asked whilst tuning his guitar. Crash's eyes widened in realization as he looked down at the empty donut wrapper. He turned slowly to look at his fellow Aquabat in innocent guilt.

"Um… no," he said, crumbs of the donut falling from his mouth.

"Are you kidding me?" growled Eaglebones.

"I'm sorry, I forgot! And then I broke the vending machine…"

"Great. First you crush the Battletram with your giant foot and then—"

"That wasn't my fault! It was that monster guy! He pushed me!"

"—And then you break the vending machine. Again!"

"Hey now, let's stop fighting, you guys," the Commander said, stepping out of the bathroom in his pajamas and brushing his teeth.

"There's a girl in the rain outside," Ricky suddenly announced.

The Commander laughed, "Yeah Ricky, both girls and boys check into hotels."

"No, but I mean, they won't let her in!" The others looked at each other in concern. "Come over here and look!" The five gathered at the window looking out to see a young lady soaked wet, knocking on the front doors.

"Come on! You can't just leave me out here alone!" she yelled. A front desk clerk peeked his head out.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but there's no rooms available at this time!" he said insistently.

"I just need a phone! Something! Come on, I need help!" she said.

"I'm sorry," he said, before locking the door. She stood there for a few seconds staring in before falling to the ground and covering her face.

"Oh no, she's crying!" Ricky said worriedly.

"I wonder what the dilemma is?" Jimmy said, backing away from the window and scratching his head.

Ricky wasn't slow to assist a woman in need, however. He opened the window and leaned out.

"Hey! Hey lady!" Ricky called out into the night. Her head popped up and she looked over in his direction. "Yeah! You! Come over here! We can help you!" He waved her over, and she cautiously sauntered to the window. Her eyes, the color of dried autumn leaves, looked up sheepishly at the Aquabat. She raised an eyebrow at his appearance.

"What are you? Some kind of wannabe superhero?" she asked.

"We all are!" declared the Commander proudly. "Well, not wannabes, but we certainly are superheroes. And not only that, we're a rock n' roll band of superheroes! We're the Aquabats!"

"Um," she gulped, unsure of the group. Ricky, besides her uncertainty, helped her in through the window. She looked around at all of them, examining their faces. Although their goofy outfits were enough to say that they meant no harm, she couldn't help but to be wary. Especially after what just happened. That snapped her into action. "You need to help me!"

"First, you should change," insisted Ricky. She looked at him oddly. "I… We wouldn't want you to catch a cold!" Eaglebones rolled his eyes.

"Right!" exclaimed the Commander. "Jimmy! Do you have an extra change of clothes?"

"Of course, Commander," the robot replied, pressing a button on his side, that opened a compartment where a uniform was stored. "It might be a little big."

"T-thanks, anyway," she said, taking it and disappearing into the bathroom.

Ricky, with a bright smile, said, "She seems nice!"

"Yeah!" added Crash. "She should be our friend!"

"Are you suggesting she joins us?" Jimmy asked.

"Woah, slow down there, homies! I think five group members is enough!" the Commander said, putting his hands up in defense.

"What's wrong with a female member?" Ricky pouted like a sad puppy.

"Nothing! It's just… I don't know!"

At that moment, the young lady stepped out of the bathroom, swimming in the change of clothes. The others stared at her, in awe of the girl in Aquabats clothing. She sat on the edge of the bed and went back to explaining the reason she was here.

"It's my family… They've been kidnapped by some sort of spirit! We were on a road trip and the car broke down. My father stepped outside to see what was wrong and then, all of a sudden, my little sister started screaming in her sleep. She had been having night terrors every night for a week now, but this one was worse than the others. I tried waking her, but before I knew it, a dark mist of some sort leaked out of her closed eyes… I don't know how to explain it! But then the mist shot right into my mom's eyes and she started screaming too. I got scared and got out of the car to get my dad. But I was too late… The mist was in his eyes too. Then, like a picture being taken, I blinked and they were gone. Vanished. I had no idea what happened. It was just me and the car on this dark back road. I finally made it here, and… and…" She blinked back tears and her expression of fear morphed back into a tough exterior. "I'm just scared." She looked up at them, only to see appalled faces as result of her story. "I need to find them."

"Don't worry," the MC Bat Commander said finally. "We'll help you find your family. We deal with unimaginable troubles like yours all the time."

"Really?" she said, surprised they believed her.

"Of course, that's what the Aquabats are here for!" He then turned and mumbled under his breath, "The only thing is you can't join us in the search, okay?"

"What?" she shrieked, standing up.

"Commander, what?" whined Ricky.

"I don't want you to get hurt," the leader said honestly.

"But they're my family, and if anyone is going to fight to save them, it's going to be me," she insisted. The group was compelled by this girl's strong determination.

"…Fine," huffed out the Commander.

"Great!" Crash cheered. "What's your name?"

"Caliel Grey," she said. "I'm fourteen years old."

"So young and fighting against evil forces like this? She's going to get hurt," whimpered the Commander to himself.

"Well, if you'll be joining our team, Caliel, we'll have to get that uniform fitted for you," Jimmy said.

"You can call me Calico, if you want," she said. "Everyone else does because I love cats. Well, they also call me Tea Time Calico because I love tea as well…"

"That can be your superhero name!" Crash said happily.

"Well, isn't someone being a bit indifferent," Eaglebones said to the sulking leader.

"I just don't think this is a very good idea, bringing along a little girl on a dangerous mission," he said.

"Oh come on, she's only five years younger than Ricky." The two turned to see Ricky trying to chat it up with Calico. He was such a flirt sometimes. "How bad can this possibly be?"

That night, when the five, er, six Aquabats were sleeping, Calico was not aware that she was about to be the next victim to the Dark Queen's awful kidnapping. Calico awoke suddenly, finding Ricky asleep on her shoulder. An unpleasant feeling overcame her and she quickly arose, making sure not to wake the superhero. The motel room seemed different. Distorted, like some sort of funhouse. She looked around at the sleeping men around her.

"One…" she counted Ricky. "Two…" Crash. "Three…" Jimmy. "Four…" Eaglebones. "Five…" The Commander. "Six…" Wait. The sixth one would be her, she supposed. Then who was that standing in the corner…

A tall woman in a black dress stepped into the moonlight. Her limbs were exceedingly long and skinny, and Her eyes were madly enlarged. Her twisted grin was disturbing, for Her teeth were instead sharp jagged daggers.

"You want to save your family?" Her cosmic voice chanted. "You think you can find the Dragon's Breath in time to rescue them from my precious nightmares?" Her smile widened – how was that even possible? – like a true Cheshire cat.

"I will save them! My new friends and I will stop you for good!" she shouted at her.

The wicked Queen laughed, "You won't be able to save them, if your new friends can't save you!" Without warning, the Queen flew towards her, cackling hysterically. Calico let out a scream, and something slammed into her like a freight train. But it wasn't the Queen… What was it?

"Calico! Caliel! Wake up!" Her brown eyes flashed open to see the five boys surround her in worry. It was morning. It was a dream.

"Calico, are you okay?" the Commander asked.

"The thing… the spirit… It tried to take me," she gasped out expressionless. "But, I think I know what to do now."


End file.
